'Breaking Bad' finale: A satisfying send-off

5:58 AM,
Sep. 30, 2013

Vince Gilligan, center, and the cast and crew of ?Breaking Bad? accept the award for outstanding drama series at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre on Sunday Sept. 22, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Written by

Robert Bianco
USA TODAY

In a stunning 75-minute extended finale, Vince Gilligan brought Breaking Bad to a supremely fitting close, tying up all the loose ends in his modern classic AMC series and killing off his now iconic anti-hero Walter White. And he did so in a way that confirmed Bad's status as one of TV's greatest series and star Bryan Cranston as one of America's best actors.

Tense, witty, violent, oddly tender and, in its own strange way, as close to a "happy" ending as a story this dark could hope, this last episode brought the story to a straightforward, definitive conclusion, ...